


Up in the Air

by captainatx



Category: Women's Soccer RPF
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-13
Updated: 2013-12-13
Packaged: 2018-01-04 12:10:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1080856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainatx/pseuds/captainatx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Cabin Crew, prepare doors for departure"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up in the Air

**Eight hours and twelve minutes**

In eight hours and twelve minutes, Alex would be out of the 10th circle of hell known as LAX, and heading to a bar in New York City with her best friend, Kelley, where they would be taking a copious amount of shots to celebrate two weeks of glorious, uninterrupted vacation.

But first, she had to make sure her electric toothbrush didn’t go off in the security line, because she could go her entire life without reliving that mortifying experience.

 

**Six hours and fifteen minutes**

Alex tapped her foot impatiently, watching as the line of people boarding in front of her slowed to a crawl as one lady argued about the size of her carry-on bag (which Alex was almost positive contained a dead body) with the man at the counter.

A child’s voice cried out behind her, and Alex turned to see a boy of about 7, absolutely horrified to find that the batteries on his Nintendo DS had died before the flight had even started. His mother tried to calm him, saying that they didn’t have time to go get batteries before the flight, but she’d buy him chicken nuggets as soon as they landed if only he’d quit screaming.

Alex felt for the woman, and her kid, honestly. It had been a hell of a trip so far, and she knew that if her iPhone died when she still had six hours and thirteen minutes left to go, she was liable to start throwing things.

Her curiosity was piqued when a young (about her age, if she had to guess) hoodie-clad woman behind the two tapped on the mother’s shoulder before bending down to eye-level with the boy. Smiling widely, the woman reached into her backpack, pulled out a small digital camera, and shook the batteries into the boy’s hand.

Alex smiled softly, because maybe LAX wasn’t the gaping portal to hell she thought it was.

 

**Five hours and fifty-two minutes**

Alex shuffled down the aisle, apologizing to the people she nailed in the face with her purse as she counted down to her seat. Arriving at 22C, Alex breathed a sigh of relief to find that the rather large, sweaty man that had burned holes in her ass with his eyes in the ticket line was nowhere to be seen.

She reached down to her rolling bag, and was in the process of hoisting it up and into the overhead bin when the she spotted the battery-saving woman from earlier standing to her right. The woman met Alex’s eye, and gave her a soft smile. Alex grinned in return, her grip on her luggage slipping slightly, before the woman’s hand shot out and helped push it securely into the bin.

“Uh, thanks,” Alex smiled sheepishly, “you’re saving people all over the place today.”

The woman laughed, and Alex felt the sound in her bones. “What can I say? Modern day superhero, right here.”

Alex laughed, too, before looking behind the woman to see a large, irritated group of people still waiting to be seated. She shot the woman an apologetic smile and ducked down into her window seat.

To her surprise, however, the woman followed suit - shoving her duffle bag into the overhead bin next to Alex’s bag and plopping unceremoniously into the seat on the aisle.

“I figured I’d sit here, just in case you needed any more saving,” the woman said, turning to Alex with a grin and laughing at the confused look she got in return. “Yo, I’m just kidding. Look, it’s on the ticket: 22A, Tobin Heath, American Airlines approved. I promise I’m not stalking you.”

“No, I uh… not that I thought that… I…. yeah.” Alex blushed, leaning down to dig in her bag for no reason other than to escape the teasing looks of the other woman. Tobin.

Realizing what a complete basket case she was being, Alex sat up quickly, fully prepared to talk to this girl like a normal, college-educated, socially adept person, but she was met instead with a teenage boy in a Yankees cap and a gallon of Axe body spray inhabiting the middle seat.

She didn’t know why, but not getting to make a better impression on this complete stranger really bothered Alex. She normally wasn’t one to care about what people thought of her, or else she wouldn’t let herself be seen in public with Kelley as much as she did, but this one really got to her. With a defeated sigh, she plugged in her headphones, leaned back against the seat, and prepared herself for take off.

 

**Four hours and forty-five minutes**

God, how Alex wished she could sleep on planes.

Take-off had been relatively uneventful, and the boy to her right had pulled down his tray table and passed out on top of it the moment they’d been given the okay.

Alex pulled out the monthly American Airlines magazine in front of her, flipping through the pages absentmindedly. She stole a glance to her right, and with the boy asleep, she was able to see Tobin in the aisle seat, hood up, flipping through a surfing magazine.

She wanted to make conversation, but wasn’t sure where to start. “Fly here often?” “Do you think they’ll serve dinner?” and “Have you ever been in a plane crash?” didn’t seem like suitable topics if she was trying to get away from that whole socially-inept persona she’d accidentally cultivated.

She flipped through a few more pages of the magazine, landing on the crossword puzzle towards the back.

“Uh… hey, Tobin, right?” Alex spoke quietly, lest she wake up the Degrassi reject sitting next to her.

Tobin looked up from her magazine, offering Alex a small smile.

“Sorry to, uh, interrupt,” Alex began, immediately regretting opening her mouth, “but, um… do you happen to know who painted The Burning Giraffe?”

Tobin cocked an eyebrow at Alex. “What?”

Alex shook her head quickly, looking back down at her puzzle. “Sorry, you were reading and I totally interrupted. I’ll just go back to that one later.”

Tobin laughed, pulling an earbud out from under her hood. “No, no, I just couldn’t hear the question. Say it again.”

“Do you know who painted The Burning Giraffe?”

“I’m pretty sure it was Salvador Dali.”

“Awesome, that fits. Thanks,” Alex said, intent on letting Tobin get back to her magazine.

“Ask me another.”

“What?”

“Ask me another,” Tobin dropped her headphones onto her lap, turning slightly to face Alex. “My music is getting repetitive. I need some stimulation.”

Alex felt her cheeks redden and inwardly cursed. “Uh, let’s see… North Carolina University.”

“Tarheels.”

“I don’t think so.”

“I think I might know this one - I went there.”

“I think you might want to get your money back, because this only has four letters.”

Tobin laughed, stopping abruptly when the boy in the middle stirred. “Okay, you got me there. Elon, maybe?”

Alex grinned, “Nailed it. Ripley’s last words?”

“‘Look, Ma, no hands!’”

“Not… quite. But, can you imagine if they had _Ripley’s Look Ma No Hands_ in cities around the U.S.? Talk about a gold mine,” Alex laughed.

Tobin’s smile grew. “I bet it would be right up there with _Bubba Gump’s House of Enchiladas_ on the list of most successful, semi-accurate pop-culture franchises.”

“Oh, no doubt.”

“So, what brings you to--,” Tobin began, but was interrupted by the teenage boy suddenly jolting awake, breaking her eyeline towards Alex. The boy looked back and forth between the two girls, giving Alex a slight nod and a ‘sup.’ Alex cringed, pushing up her tray table and unbuckling her seatbelt.

“I’m gonna just… excuse me,” she said, standing up and attempting to make her way out of her seat. The boy didn’t stand, only pulled his legs up into her seat to make way. Tobin stood, moving out into the aisle to let Alex pass. Alex made a face at the other girl, mumbling a ‘sorry’ as she maneuvered herself around.

“No worries,” Tobin assured. “We’ll finish the puzzle eventually.”

 

**Four hours and thirty-two minutes**

When Alex returned to her seat, she was unsurprised to find the boy back to sleep on his tray table. She was surprised, however, to find the boy in the aisle seat, and Tobin in the middle. Seeing Alex’s confused expression, Tobin shrugged.

“He asked if he could sit in the aisle. More leg room, I guess. Also, I don’t think he’s waking up. You may have to Spiderman yourself over.”

Alex laughed, slightly kicking the boy in the foot but getting nothing in return. She looked around, making sure there were no flight attendants watching, before lifting a foot onto the the edge of the boy’s seat.

“Shit. I’m going to get kicked off the plane,” she muttered, grabbing the back of the boy’s seat and reaching a hand out for Tobin. “Gonna need a little help on this one.”

Tobin adjusted herself in her seat and grabbed Alex’s hand, “You ready?”

Alex nodded, and with Tobin keeping her balanced, maneuvered her way quickly over the boy, across Tobin’s seat, and save for a gnarly head bump on the panel overhead, safely into her own. With a sigh of relief, Alex relaxed into her seat. She looked to Tobin at her right, but instead locked eyes with an older lady across the aisle who shook her head disapprovingly. Tobin followed Alex’s look, and shot the older woman a thumbs up, sending both girls into a fit of laughter.

“She’s going to turn me into TSA, isn’t she?” Alex whispered, with her own small wave to the lady.

“Definitely getting arrested at the gate. When we step off this plane, I don’t know you,” Tobin responded, turning away from the lady and back to Alex. “Though, I guess that would require me to actually know you first. I’m Tobin.”

Alex reached out to shake the hand Tobin offered her. “Alex. American Airlines approved.”

The two girls smiled at each other, their hands still unconsciously gripped between them. Tobin was the first to shake herself out of the daze, letting go of Alex’s hand and pointing to the magazine.

“So, American Airlines approved Alex, how about that puzzle? We haven’t even reached the tip of my stockpile of useless information.”

 

**Three hours and thirty-eight minutes**

“That’s the grossest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“No, Alex, I swear to you. Just dip the fries into the milkshake once and your entire world will change.”

“You’re right, my entire world would change if I drowned in a pool of my own vomit.”

An intense game of twenty questions, in which Tobin had divulged that she’d seen every episode of Days of Our Lives since 1993 and Alex had demonstrated that she could, in fact, lick her own elbow, suddenly went off the rails once the “favorite food” category had been reached.

“Dramatic much? You live in California. I can guarantee you’ve eaten weirder things - things that probably aren’t even technically food. Like quinoa,” Tobin argued.

Alex’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me, but quinoa is delicio- wait, how did you know I lived in California?”

Tobin shrugged. “Educated guess? I mean, you’ve got a tan in the middle of December, so you’re obviously not from a place that requires jackets; your iPad case has a Cal sticker on it, and nobody actually likes that school unless they went there,” Tobin teased, and earned an elbow to the ribs before apologizing. “And, plus, you’re far too personable to be from New York.”

“You caught me. California, born, raised, and now. My best friend lives in New York, and I’m spending the break with her. What about you? Are you leaving home or going home?”

“Going. I had a work thing in LA, but I live in the city.”

“Yet, somehow still personable,” Alex teased, enjoying the way Tobin’s smile seemed to cover her entire face.

“I was raised in Jersey, so I have a built-in forcefield to protect me from all of the hardened cynicism,” Tobin joked.

Alex grinned. “Lucky me.”

 

**Two hours and ten minutes**

“Aaand… Full House.”

“Damnit!”

“That’s three in a row, Cali. Are you sure you don’t want to play a different game?” Tobin shuffled the cards in her hands with ease, endlessly amused with how red the other girl’s face was.

Alex shifted in her seat, knocking her knees with Tobin’s and counting out five peanuts from the pile on her tray. “Not a chance. Deal.”

“You’re really competitive, did you know that?” Tobin asked, dealing the cards into two piles and scooting one towards Alex.

“I’ve got two older sisters. If you weren’t competitive in my house, you didn’t get to shower before school,” Alex explained, studying her cards, and Tobin’s poker face, before pushing a few more peanuts into the circle.

“I have two older sisters, too,” Tobin offered, “And a younger brother. But I don’t think I’ve ever threatened to stab a stranger over a poker game.”

“I never threatened to stab you,” Alex said, her face screwed up in indignation.

“No, but you will. Straight flush.”

“DAMNIT!”

 

**One hour and thirty-one minutes**

“This movie is terrible,” Tobin whispered, nudging Alex’s shoulder when the girl didn’t respond. “Why are we watching this?”

“Because the DVD got stuck in my laptop, and I refuse to watch another free episode of Two and a Half Men,” Alex argued, motioning to the screen hanging down into the aisle.

“But why doesn’t Zac Efron just tell Orange is the New Black chick that he found her picture in the desert somewhere? What’s the point of lying?”

“I don’t make the rules, Tobin. Nicholas Sparks does. And in Nicholas Sparks’ world, being as pretty as Zac Efron, as well as a tortured soul, gives you free reign to be a total stalker creep.”

“He should forget about Piper and start stalking Blythe Danner. She seems way less high maintenance. Also, she’s pretty hot.”

“Totally.”

 

**Twenty-six minutes**

“Please return your seats and tray tables to the upright and locked position, and thank you for flying American Airlines.”

As the plane made it’s final descent into JFK, Alex felt the familiar drop in the pit of her stomach, and, closing her eyes, she leaned back and gripped her arm rest tightly. Tobin, noticing the sudden change in Alex’s demeanor, simply placed her arm over Alex’s, giving the frightened girl’s hand a simple squeeze.

“It’ll be over soon, Alex.”

Alex nodded, and, through her fear, wondered why she cared so much that Tobin’s sentence applied to more than just landing.

 

**Five minutes**

After helping Alex get her bag down from the overhead bin, Tobin led the way down the plane’s aisle, and the two walked silently off of the plane and out into the terminal, neither knowing quite what to say.

Far too soon, they reached a split in the walk way - left to baggage claim, right to taxis. Tobin, who had checked a bag, shrugged her carry-on higher onto her shoulder and jerked a thumb towards the carousel.

“I’m that way.”

Alex nodded, hoping her face didn’t look as pathetic as she felt. She barely knew this girl, but it was like leaving someone she’d known all of her life, as stupid as that sounded in her own head.

“Right. So, um… thanks. You know, for being so personable.”

Tobin grinned. “No problem. Wouldn’t want you to get a bad impression of New Yorkers on your first trip here.”

“I’ll let the mayor know how well you’re representing his city. I’m sure he’ll give you a medal or something,” Alex teased.

“I’ll keep an eye out for it in the mail. Enjoy New York City, and take care of yourself, Alex.”

“You too, Tobin,” Alex said, giving a soft smile, before turning and walking towards the exit.

Alex had almost reached the doors when a “Hey, Alex?” made her stop and turn. She took a few steps back towards where Tobin stood, and eyed the girl curiously.

“I, uh, I paid that kid twenty bucks to switch seats with me,” Tobin said, her eyes glued to the floor and her shoe scuffing the linoleum. Alex let out a loud laugh, causing Tobin to look up.

Alex shrugged. “I finished that crossword puzzle last month when I flew to Seattle.”

Tobin smiled widely, looking like a kid on Christmas morning, and Alex followed suit, the two grinning at each other like idiots across a busy airport lobby for what seemed like an eternity.

Finally, Tobin spoke, grabbing her bag and making her way towards Alex.

“Do you maybe want to go grab a milkshake?”

Alex had waited 8 hours and twelve minutes to get to JFK. What was the harm in taking a little more time?

 


End file.
